July 15, 2013

I began my teaching career as a resident (classroom) instructor teaching Army officers about leadership. My teaching techniques are based on Kolb’s Experiential Learning Model (ELM) that involves the following steps: (1) Concrete Experience, (2) Publish and Process, (3) Generalize New Information, (4) Apply, and (5) Develop.i ELM, which has worked very well for me in the classroom, directly emphasizes that adults learn when they:

Discover for themselves

Take responsibility for their learning

Have a venue to receive experience and feedback

Understand why the lesson is beneficial to their personal and/or professional livesii

When I retired from the military and transitioned to distance learning instruction, I wondered if it was possible to apply Kolb’s ELM to an online curriculum and still facilitate a valuable adult learning environment for 32 geographically dispersed students. Here are some techniques that I currently use to apply Kolb’s ELM in online teaching.

In my distance learning class, we meet routinely online every two weeks. During each synchronous session, the students will usually brief a practical exercise that they have developed together since the previous session.

Concrete Experience: After listening to the previous practical exercise and providing feedback, I take time to introduce the next lesson through the use of a specific experience. The Concrete Experience Step personally involves students in the lesson and demonstrates the potential value. I present open-ended questions or conduct a brief exercise that allows each student to enter the affective domain (growth in feelings or emotional areas)iii through personal involvement and interaction with classmates.

Publish and Process: Before ending this online session, we move to the Publish and Process Step where I obtain their reaction and ask them what they have learned from the open-ended question or exercise related to the upcoming lesson (Concrete Experience). This allows the students to potentially see the importance of the material that they are going to study over the next two weeks. Remember both the Concrete Experience and Publish and Process Steps occur before the students have actually reviewed the upcoming lesson. If this is relatively new material or a number of students lack existing experience, I may begin the Generalize New Information Step (lecture, demonstration, etc.) and provide recommendations for specific study. I’ll provide practical exercise guidance, review upcoming assignment instructions, and answer any questions before ending the session.

Generalize New Information: During the next two weeks, the students are now responsible for reviewing the lesson material. This officially begins the Generalize New Information Step and is where students will enter the cognitive domainiv . Instead of classroom lecture and demonstration, students use computer-based instruction, assigned readings, and case studies found on Blackboard, our learning management system. I am always available through e-mail, phone, or Defense Connect On-line (DCO), which is the Department of Defense’s online chat and web conferencing service. However, the responsibility is with the student to review and learn the material.

The next two steps can be delayed or conducted sequentially based on delivery methodology or specific lesson block learning objectives.

Apply: After the students review the material, we move to the Apply Step (or assessment). The students will collaborate via e-mail, telephone, or DCO and complete a practical exercise that measures their ability to accomplish the learning objective. I am still available to provide further guidance and assistance, however, they are now applying what they have learned to gain experience or improve upon existing experience. To support and reinforce the practical exercise preparation, I post discussion board questions to quickly conduct a “check on student learning” and allow students to further share ideas and interact with each other and me. Further, in addition to large group practical exercises and discussion board questions, I use a number of other venues such as individual and group writing assignments, small group presentations, tactical simulations, etc. After two weeks, we come back together online and the students continue with the Apply Step by presenting their practical exercise or briefing. As required, I may revisit the Generalize New Information Step (lecture, demonstration, socratic questionsv , etc.) to highlight any major points the students do not fully understand.

Develop: After the presentation, I now use the Develop Step to inquire as to how students feel they can use this material in the future and its value to their professional and/or personal lives. I provide verbal feedback immediately and written feedback later in the week.

In sum, with student-centered learning and instructor involvement, I found I am able to apply the Kolb ELM model to an online course that fully facilitates a valuable adult learning environment.

Comments

I agree with the above comment. Great article, but perhaps you (the author) would consider doing a follow up with concrete example? I would be very interested.
Take care.
Francesco

Liz Zakos | July 19, 2013

Thanks Eric. I appreciate that you contributed this to the Faculty Focus dialogue. Whether we agree or not, these are theories and practices that we need to be aware of and also for which we need to have an open dialogue. I personally think the Kolb model is great and it often gets overshadowed by other ideas and theories and people miss out on it. Thanks for sharing. Liz Z.

Fernando Dell'Agli | August 9, 2013

I agree with above comments that the description on how to apply Kolb ELM would be more useful if supported by some examples, nevertheless I'm very grateful to Eric for his article; similar issues need to be investigated and discussed openly among adult educators. Thanks
Fernando Dell'Agli

Marva Connell | September 27, 2013

The ease of transferring teaching from classroom to online immediately stuck me. The five steps used in Kolb ELM (1) Concrete Experience, (2) Publish and Process, (3) Generalize New Information, (4) Apply, and (5) Develop allow for the involvement of participants and further emphasises that learning online must be collaborative as is evidenced by the "practical exercise" the students have developed together. Assessment is both summative and formative. I agree with the instructors' view that "with student-centered learning and instructor involvement, I found I am able to apply the Kolb ELM model to an online course that fully facilitates a valuable adult learning environment".

Guest | February 4, 2014

I think the article was on point. Explores the subject without trying to make you an expert. For those comments about "abstract" or "agree or "disagree", I think you were making a comment to get class credit. I don't think you took the time to understand the idea. I love the comment about transferring Kolb to an online forum. I can see this as challenging. If you are an adult educator, I suggest putting some time into understanding the theories.